I am new to blogging, with just passing over 50 followers on WordPress and 75 on Facebook so far so I was really surprised but also honoured to be one of the 11 bloggers recently nominated the Liebster Award by Sofia whose blog is A no one’s diary. Sofia likes writing about life, random stuff and make up and you can click on her link here https://anoonesdiary.wordpress.com/ to find out out more about her and her lovely blog.

The Liebster Award gives bloggers the opportunity to grow their followership by telling other bloggers a bit more about themselves and engaging with fellow bloggers through nominating them further. It helps promote each others’ blogs. So thank you Sofia for the opportunity and I’d like to pay it forward too!

The rules are:

The nominated blogger must acknowledge who has nominated them and also share their links

Share 11 facts about themselves

Answer the 11 questions that they have been asked

Nominate 11 more bloggers whose blog they recommend

Ask 11 questions that they would like those bloggers to answer

Let the bloggers they’ve nominated know that they’ve been nominated.

So here it goes!

11 Facts about me:

I started Flamenco dance classes (and took them for about 5 years) after I was inspired by watching live Flamenco dancing in Barcelona while travelling there with friends as a graduate student.

I am a huge Kate Bush fan. My lifetime dream to one day see her perform live became a reality 3 years ago!

When we bought an Espresso coffee machine with my husband about a year ago we started a tradition without even discussing it which we continue to this day. Everytime we open a packet of espresso coffee capsules we stack them next to the coffee machine in different formations. Every time one of us uses a capsule or adds more capsules to the kitchen counter we change the shape of the formation. I don’t know if what I’m trying to explain makes any sense so here are some photos to show you better some examples of our formations.

4. I was a ferocious nail biter from a young age until I turned 22. Just before going to graduate school I woke up one day and thought to myself “Kiki, you’re too old to be biting your nails. Grow up and grow your nails already”. After that I grew my nails really long and have managed to quit my bad habit for good. I now love having well manicured nails and painting them different colours.

5. I love travelling and made it my goal a few years ago to travel to new destinations every year and visit as many different countries as possible. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to do this lately but so far I have visited 30 different countries (if I include my homeland Cyprus) in my 42 years of living on earth :

Greece

UK

France

Belgium

Luxemburg

Switzerlan (only passing through though)

Poland

Germany

Italy

Spain

Malta

Ireland

Austria

Iceland

Sweden

Norway

Finland

Denmark

The Netherlands

Jordan

Lebanon

UAE

USA

Egyp

Israel

Hungary

Czech Republic

Latvia

Australia (I don’t know this one escaped me. A friend who read the blog just notified me to add it)

Hopefully I will get to visit another 30 in my lifetime.

6. I once won a karaoke contest in a bar in Patra (Greece) while on a weekend get away with friends. I won singing the song “Black Velvet” by Alanah Myles. It was the highlight of my singing career.

7. My husband and I became Wombassadors ever since we came back from Sydney (Australia) after we spent 6 weeks there in 2013. Wombats are animals native only to Australia, less known than koalas but equally cute. Australian organisations that care for them depend on charity to pay for their needs and we are happy to give a donation every year and buy promotional materials as gifts from them. We also hope to hug a few wombats one day. They’re adorable.

8. I love attending live concerts. Last night I had the opportunity to watch Robbie Williams in Manchester. It was so much fun!

9. I played the cello in highschool. Even though I was pretty much useless I really enjoyed being in the symphonic orchestra.

10. In case you haven’t realised already I love make-up.

11. I am a big foodie so I have been struggling with my weight for most of my life. Dieting is a real challenge for me. So in order to look nice for my wedding (which was in October 2016) I purposely ordered my wedding dress a size smaller. Setting that goal was the only way to lose weight but I still had to join a gym and exercise 2 hours a day, every day in the month leading up to the wedding to fit in it. Thankfully the hard work paid off and the dress did not rip when I wore it on the big day.

Now, on to Part 2. The questions assigned to me were:

What’s your guilty pleasure?

There’s so many to choose from. From chocolate, coffee, cakes … but the one that my husband finds worrying is my fascination with murder mysteries whether they are real life or fiction (reading about them or watching series and documentaries). He thinks I’m disturbed.

2. Describe your first kiss.

I am over 40 so it was a very long time ago but I’m sure it was awkward and I probably didn’t breathe during my first kiss as I wouldn’t know what to do.

3. What do you want to be when you grow up?

I love this question! When I was a child I wanted to be a fashion designer. Then I grew up, studied Psychology and HRM and followed a 20 year career in Human Resource Management. Growing up even further my dream I guess would be to become an exceptional and renowned make-up artist. But it’s probably only going to stay just a dream. But dreaming never hurt anyway so I’ll keep on dreaming.

4. Most cringey situation.

I think I’ve had quite a few of those that I’d rather forget or have a selective memory of!

5. Tell us a secret!

When I was doing my Master’s degree as a graduate student I wanted to dye my hair bright red (the Coca-Cola can colour kind) but was too scared I wouldn’t be taken seriously. I resorted to going for 1 blue strand instead. I thought it would look cool against my dyed blue-black hair. It was a botched attempt at the dormitory. I tried to bleach a strand of my (already dyed) blue black hair and then dying it blue on top. I ended up looking ridiculous with a patch in the middle of my head looking orange/purple! After my perplexed university tutor asked me what I’d done to my hair I dyed it back to black.

6. What is the worst purchase you’ve ever made?

I’ve made a few bad purchases in my life, from buying beautiful, very expensive shoes that turned out to be uncomfortable and unwearable to make up products that turned out to be rubbish. A recent bad one that comes to mind was a L’Oreal hair spray product that’s meant to cover grey roots. It just makes a mess! I’d rather dye my roots every fortnight than use that product again.

Sorry L’Oreal, I do like you as a brand in general but I wasn’t worth THAT product!

7. What’s the most useless talent you have?

I can’t think of any. I’d like to think that any talents I may have are useful in one way or another.

8. What trends do you hate?

Throughout the decades I’ve hated trends like shoulder pads and straight fringes on afro hair but the latest trend I can’t get over is “scouser eyebrows”.

9. Have you ever messed up, but no one ever found out it was you?

Hmm. I’m pretty sure I always fessed up to things I messed up. I’m not one to deny a mistake I’ve made. I sometimes even tend to apologise for things I didn’t do wrong rather than try to argue that I haven’t. So that’s something I need to work on.

10. What’s the worst habit you have?

Picking my spots. I don’t have the patience to let them go away naturally. I know it makes things worse but I can’t control myself. I know it’s a disgusting habit but you asked, sorry!

11. What’s your dream travel?

Going to the Seychelles. Ever since I saw a documentary from the 70s on the Seychelles islands with their dreamy beaches I’ve always wanted to go there one day for a romantic holiday. At some point I decided that that’s where I would go for my honeymoon if I ever got married. When I got engaged I told my (now) husband that this was my dream honeymoon destination but he wants to do a grand tour of Australia instead as he’s not interested in sitting by a beach for 2 weeks. To comprise, we’re planning (a very belated) honeymoon comprising of 2 or 3 days in Bali AND go on an adventure around Australia.

I’ve been meaning to write on my blog for a couple of weeks now about the colour wheel and the different styles of eye makeup I’ve been shown in class but I had my lovely day out in London last week which I was excited to write about and then there was last Monday evening… Where out of the blue tragedy struck Manchester. The wonderful city I’ve been living in for the last 3 years. A city with history, beautiful architecture, industrial significance, great music scene. An inspiring city which re-emerged from the IRA bombings and rebuilt itself beautifully to combine the old with the modern. A city of wonderful, compassionate people.

The sensesless act of bombing innocent people, mostly children and teenagers, has left everyone in shock​. I could not even think about writing about make up and colours when so many families are suffering.

But Mancunians are strong and caring people. They don’t live in fear. They took to the streets to show solidarity and opposition to terrorism by flooding central Manchester and showing their love for the great city of Manchester and its people. Buildings, shop windows, walls covered with signs of love for Manchester.

It is inspiring to see that although people are hurting they are not defeated. I too will resume my usual blogging about makeup soon.

I hadn’t seen Asha, my good friend from uni, since my wedding in Cyprus last October. She lives in Surrey (but commutes to London for work) and has a busy schedule so although we now live in the same country again, meeting up is not that often and requires some planning. We keep in touch regularly, sending each other messages via social media but so far since 2014 we managed to see each other about twice a year. She was due to visit me in Manchester at the end of June but in the meantime she suggested we arrange a meet-up for the day in London sometime in May. So, I booked my train ticket a few weeks in advance to avoid the ridiculously extortionate prices that the Manchester-London trains sometimes charge and off I was yesterday for a girly day out! We planned to do the things we like the most: eat nice food, chat, have coffee, talk about make-up, look at make-up and eat cake!

We met in Euston train station and took the underground to Covent Garden where we were booked to have brunch at Bill’s in St Martin’s Courtyard.

Asha in Bill’s

Our nice, filling late breakfasts (Asha had the veggie breakfast and I went for a yummy avocado on toast with poached eggs and streaky bacon) were followed by a cup of coffee and a stroll around the make up stores in Covent Garden. We had been having a running debate about whether Asha’s foundation number/colour was too dark for her skin tone and we wanted to check it out in MAC where she buys it from.

First off though we visited the Charlotte Tilbury shop. It must have been a very new shop there because although it was very busy with people more than half of them were staff members! The staff to customer ration seemed to be 3:1! The staff were very eager to service customers but I’m not sure how many sales were being made. We had a good look at the face creams and make up products and asked about the prices (which were a bit high) but we didn’t find anything that we couldn’t live with so we left without any purchases. I then spotted, on the opposite side of the street, a KIKO store. I first had heard of this Milanese brand in Sweden on a 2009 trip there where while at a shopping mall with my friend Maria we stumbled across it and bought a few colour correcting/concealer products. Asha hadn’t heard of it before so we went inside to have a look there as well. KIKO prices are very reasonable and they had a good range of quality make-up brushes and I ended up buying an eyeshadow pencil brush at half the price of a MAC one as well as a loose face powder and a powder puff. I also bought a few make-up goodies a late birthday present for Asha, one of them was a very promising highlighter.

Kiki, the happy KIKO shopper

3 shops to the right was the MAC store which felt really crammed and the staff on the first floor were too busy to attend to all the customers. We almost left with nothing when we realised there was a basement floor. I am SO glad we took the stairs down. It was not busy and that’s where we found a make-up artist who finally put mine and Asha’s debate at rest (the correct foundation number apparently is somewhere between the one she has and the number I suggested). The make-up artist/assistant even gave Asha a freebie with the suggested foundation to try the lighter tone at home (woohoo!) and I was overjoyed to finally be re-united with the eyeshadow brush no. 227. It is by far the best blender eyeshadow brush I have ever used. I had bought it from the Cyprus MAC store 10 years ago and it was stolen from my car in Cyprus 2.5 years ago when someone broke into it at Christmas time and stole my make up bag. Since then I had been mourning that brush more than my expensive sunglasses and other items taken from my car as I was unable to find the same brush in the Cyprus or Manchester MAC stores I looked into. I couldn’t find it in the UK online MAC store either. So I shrieked with delight when I saw it in the Covent Garden store. The shop assistant there who heard me couldn’t believe how happy I was over a brush! So the MAC visit was a win for both my friend and I!

My KIKO and MAC purchases

The last thing on our day’s To -Do list was a must visit to Hummingbird in Soho. We wanted to have some cake but also take some treats back home but we were still quite full from our brunch so we only bought cupcakes to take home. Although we both have a sweet tooth we still could not have cake in the afternoon so we decided that we would have them as dessert after dinner at our homes. I chose Carrot, Dark Bottom, Salted Caramel and Red Velvet to share with my husband back home. (He loved them so much he now wants me to go to London again just for the cupcakes).

cof

cof

All in all, it was a lovely day, catching up with my friend, doing some shopping and enjoying yummy things! Even the weather wasn’t too bad with sunshine most of the day. We ended up using our umbrellas only for a minute as the showers were sporadic and we were indoors most of the time.

Having one last cup of tea at Pret-a-Manger before taking our respective trains back we decided that we could meet more regularly in different towns to shorten the distance between us. However, the next time will be a proper visit in a month’s time when my friend comes to stay over in Manchester to spend some quality time and be make-up guinea pig . So part 2 of ladies who brunch and shop for make-up will be in Manchester at the end of June!

P.S. I do have to try some different eyeshadows for my course homework but I am continuing with my personal make-up challenge and was wearing the MAC Deep Truth and Cien’s sky blue eyeshadows on my London day trip.

The title of this blog post came to me yesterday morning when the sound of heavy rain, (instead of sunrays through my bedroom window), woke me 20 minutes before my alarm was due to ring. And yes, the pun is intentional.

The British weather is notorious for its unpredictability but it is mid-May and with the weather not being able to decide whether it wants to spring into summer or step back into the Ice Ages I think I’m going slightly mad! Can’t the weather make up its mind already? Not only I do not know how to dress from one day to the next, I also don’t know what make up look to go for.

I once had a one-to-one make up lesson in Cyprus with a famous local make-up artist who, amongst other useful tips and tricks he taught me on make-up, he talked to me about the winter and summer make up colour trends. These can only work when you live in a country where seasons and weather are stable, more or less. In Britain, they go out the window!

One day in Great Britain can contain all four seasons. Anyone who’s lived in this country knows this. As there is absolutely no straightforward winter / spring / summer / autumn seasonality in this country, sticking to fashionable colour themes to align looks with the weather seems impossible. Equally seemingly impossible is my ability to stop buying more and more make-up products.

I love variety too much, which is why I could never stick to the same make up look on a daily basis. I would get bored if I made my face exactly the same day in, day out. My love for different looks often gets me into trouble with trying and buying new make-up products and experimenting with new looks. As a result, I have accumulated over the years a large collection of products that is always difficult to go through and use up. Unless I lose a lipstick or an eyeshadow (or have it stolen as it so happened once but that’s a sad and bitter story for another blog post) it’s extremely rare that I will have to buy a replacement of the same thing. That’s because I have too much of a variety to choose from at home already. (Foundations, concealers, mascaras, eye pencils and powders don’t fall into this category of course as they are the staples of every woman’s daily make up routine).

So, I’ve thought of a way of combating the indecisiveness of not knowing what make up look to go for while using my existing products and slowly getting rid of some.

I dare say, I’ve come up with a strategic decision on make-up usage!

I have decided that every day of each of the following 8 weeks I will use the exact same blusher and eye products. Shocker isn’t it?! This is probably not so alien to most people. But the thought of this to me was!

Starting as of yesterday (Monday) with the 1st day of the 1st of the 8 weeks of my challenge, I will be using the same blusher Estee Lauder bronzer as blusher and a cheap and cheerful blue/grey eyeshadow palette for the eyes, my MAC Deep Truth (a sapphire deep blue) eye shadow, my mascara, my black eye pencil as eyeliner. Only! It does not have to be the exact same look every day but I will stick to the same colour palette for eyes and cheeks.

Cien’s 19 Blue Magic trio palette & MAC’s Deep Truth

I will continue using the same mascara (Rimmel’s Super Curler 24HR) throughout the 8 weeks, unless it runs out earlier, as mascaras have a short life and I need to use this one up before opening up the new one I recently bought.

Mascara and bronzer/blusher

The purpose of this personal challenge is to repeatedly use the same products so that I get more use out of them before they reach their use-by-date and need throwing out. I’m hoping that this attempt will help me spend less time thinking what make up to go for on a daily basis but also get some results in getting specific products used that otherwise would be left in my make up box unused.

But already by day 2 of the personal challenge, which was this morning, I struggled a bit. My day did not start very well. I was already running late to get ready for work when I accidentally squirted concealer inside my eye (it really stung) and then squirted foundation all over my dress. I had to run upstairs to change into something else (still wondering if the stain will ever come out of the dress) and didn’t have time for an elaborate eye make up. I just used the silvery light blue shadow of my eyeshadow palette to apply on the eyelid and using a pencil brush I used my dark blue MAC eyeshadow as eyeliner on the upper lid for a blue feline look. I didn’t even reach for the eye pencil. It was a struggle against time but I managed to stick to my self-administered basic rules.

I wonder how much difference the challenge will make to the usage of my products but I will be checking them all at the end of this attempt. The end of the 8 weeks happens to fall on my birthday so it should be an interesting one. Watch this space for Part 2 of this post in 8 weeks’ time!

I’ve completed more than a 3rd of my make up course so far. 5 sessions down, 7 to go. The 18:00 – 21:00 hours every Tuesday evening are good for fitting my make-up class around work but they are late in the day and it can get tiring. After a full day in the office and with getting home around 22:00 to have a very late dinner and then feeling hyper and not being able to sleep early the whole day is having a bit of a knock-on effect on the rest of my week. But I shouldn’t complain. I’ve come to know my fellow students a little bit by now and learnt that a lot of them work and study in college or uni at the same time, not just doing the make-up course in their spare time like me. Some of them have kids as well so they have a lot more busy schedules and commitments than me. I cannot even imagine how it must be for Julie* for example, who juggles taking care of her 3 children, working 2 days a week and is currently studying for her university degree exams in social work, while attending this 3 hour per week course on top of everything else and trying to fit in homework make-up trials during the week!

This reminds me of all mothers who have to take care of the household, looking after their children, putting their wants and needs before their own. Mothers are every day super women who need to be respected and cherished.

As this coming Sunday it is Mother’s Day in Cyprus (I honestly don’t know why it’s different in other parts of the world like the UK) and my blog is vaguely based around the search for beauty I would like to dedicate this blog post to my mum, a strong, positive and beautiful person, inside and out. I don’t often show her my appreciation for all the things she does for me and the whole family but she’s been a pillar of strength and positivity through many difficult times, especially in the last year which has been the most difficult.

She has shown me, with her courage and positiveness, that love does not end with the loved ones that one day have to go. Love and the happy memories stay with us for ever and we have to continue making new happy memories.

My latest makeup lesson was less exciting than the previous ones. We covered the technique of lipstick application using lip liner pencil to draw the outer lips and then fill inside them using lip brush to apply the lipstick. We were also shown a technique for giving the eyes the feline look, that look a lot of people, myself included, find alluring, using black gel and experimenting with an angled brush and a very fine brush.

The cat eye look is a classic eye make-up look that never seems to go out of fashion because it is so beautiful when done well. It can extend the eyes, defining their shape and by framing the eyes it accentuates their colour. A classic example is Sophia Loren’s mesmerising look.

I have wanted to learn of a way how to do the perfect cat eye symmetrically​ on both eyes. Usually, being right handed maybe(?) I get the right eye looking ok but the left somewhat different. Sometimes I get it right on both sides of my face but time and time again I end up with one eye having either a thicker line or one eye having a more distinct flick at the end than the other. Even worse, sometimes I end up just horribly smudged in my attempts to fix one eye and then the other. (Andy Panayiotou, this reminds me of your Adam Ant story!). This is particularly the case when using gel liners, I’ve found. Which is personally why I have resorted to using pen liners. They give me a better grip for a more stable hand. It’s less time consuming and less messy.

There are loads of eyeliner pens out there in the market but I have used NYX’s The Curve Liner felt tip liner in Jet Black, Rimnel’s SCANDALEYES 24 HR WEAR Jumbo liquid liner (which is also waterproof) and most recently MUA’s EYE DEFINE soft tip felt liner to help me get even looking cat eyes. All three are in black colour and I do find it easier and quicker to use on myself than using gel and brushes.

But in class we’re shown how to use the more classical or universal makeup methods that the makeup artists use and I guess if I don’t want to be considered a cheat I will have to learn, practice and master those. Get out of my comfort zone, so to speak. I already, instinctively, knew of and have used the method of first applying the gel liner on the back of my hand with the brush, to smooth out the product. Gels can easily dry and harden and the warmth of the body helps them get back to their true form for ease of application. We were told this in class and were also told that different artists​ prefer different brushes for eye gel application. Prior to getting used to felt tip pens, I always thought that the angled brush was more convenient for me for the purpose of eyeliner but as it turns out the finer brush made it a little bit easier for me to do the cat eye on the people I practiced it on.

There is one trick I learnt​ last Tuesday, which I didn’t know of previously and want to share with you though. It was explained to us how to create a nice smokey effect under the lower lid without creating a mess or tears. You line the lower waterline with a good black pencil, preferably kohl, then using a small, tipped fluffy brush smudge it out in sections​, to avoid irritation and finish off with a second waterline pencil application!

Ever since my 3rd make-up lesson (where I was right to assume that the teacher would cover eyebrows and blusher) I’ve been meaning to get back to my blog and catch up on my experience-writing. But social commitments, early starts to my days (to fit in my “homework” make up trials) and work got in the way of my energy levels affecting my blog productivity and writing motivation. So I thought I’d fit it in during the long May-Day bank holiday weekend, amongst my other chores in my long To-Do list.So far, I managed to selectively complete half the things. But it’s the long weekend and I am chilled and taking it easy. Some white wine might help my motivation by getting the creative thinking coming, me thinks. Oh, and some Wotsits! Those cheesy corn puffs that remind me of my childhood and for the Cypriot audience: γαριδάκια Χαραλάμπους! It’s my latest favourite junk food.

Sorry about letting my thoughts drift; it could be the Sauvignon Blanc. Anyway, I wanted to recount here on the blog on my make-up experiences from the past week, starting from the actual class on Tuesday evening. As I predicted, we covered eyebrows and the correct application of blusher.

To begin with though, we were told about using a specific MAC foundation throughout that session, the Face and Body one. (I don’t know if our instructor is trying to promote the products or genuinely loves MAC but although she has introduced various make-up brands in her classes, when it comes to foundation she always uses MAC). I’ve known about this specific product by MAC. My friend and Maid of Honour, Maria told me about this a few years ago shortly after introducing me to Estee Lauder’s Double Wear foundation and I am forever indebted to her for showing me the light with the latter but boy I cannot stand the former! Not only Face and Body foundation by MAC does not suit my skin type (I am normal to oily combination skin and this water-based product is most suited to dry skin) it’s coverage is so sheer, even working on porcelain looking skin the make-up artist needs more than 1 layer to see any difference! Needless to say that for someone with a few pimples, blemishes and dark spots it is worse than wearing no make-up as it cannot build up to full coverage.

Moving back to the more important subject of eyebrows. We were shown the technique of how to best create the perfect eyebrow arch using a straight makeup brush against the nose for guidance. Here are the instructions:

To find out where your brow should begin (point A in the diagram below), align the flat edge of the makeup brush to the outside of your nose/inner corner of your eye.

Your true arch (point B) is found by taking your brush and placing it diagonally from your nostril to the outside edge of your iris. You have to look straight to get this right.

Determine where your brow should end (point C) by using your brush to create a line from the outside corner of your nose diagonally to the outer corner of your eye.

Some women have naturally balanced and full eyebrows. Some have nicely arched eyebrows but lacking in thickness and need some filling and there are others with really thin eyebrows that could do with a lot more definition. I think I fall in the second category where, in my humble opinion, my eyebrows have a symmetrical look and do not need a lot of maintenance. Perhaps some slight definition but without overdoing it.

But during the last class I fell victim to the current trend of bushy, thick eyebrows for alI. Eyebrows can be defined but if you thicken them or darken them too much they look fake and scary. I’m afraid that’s what I ended up looking when my fellow student drew my eyebrows on Tuesday. I’d much rather not touch my eyebrows than have them too thick and unnatural-looking. If you’re not too scared to look here’s what l ended up looking on Tuesday night:

Scary brows

Don’t tell me that’s not too much. Unfortunately everyone in class, including the teacher athought it was nice😒. Personally, I think that’s worrying. Thankfully, apart from practicing on my own on my face I’ve had some practice on a few ladies with short and/or thin eyebrows. I will not share the photos of the people I practiced on, to keep their anonymity, but I think I made a good job of working with their face shape, avoiding to thicken the brow too much and match the product colour (whether it was an eyebrow pencil, gel or shadow) to their natural brow and their hair colour (blondes and brunettes).

The most important tip is to use a spoolie to brush the hairs of the brow in between strokes and to use a small angled brush (same as for doing a cat-eye line) to make short and repeated strokes to fill in and define the brow. To finish off, further define the eyebrow shape by using concealer above brow and below, on the brow bone, to accentuate the shape more.

Here’s an after photo of me after realising that in my case less IS more!

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Welcome to my blog

Makeup lovers and addicts of the world, I want to reach out to you and share with you my thoughts and experiences from my new journey. A creative journey which started with the decision to take up a professional makeup artist class in April 2017.